In a mobile phone, an incoming call or an incoming message is announced by a method consisting in pre-storing an incoming melody, replayed on incoming of a call or a message, in an incoming melody storage unit, incoming melody data is read out from an incoming melody storage unit, on incoming of a call or a message, and replayed via e.g. a loudspeaker.
The incoming melody is stored in e.g. an incoming melody storage unit of a mobile phone D01 or a mobile phone D04, as shown in FIG. 13. A plural melody of incoming melody data are stored in an incoming melody storage area of a storage unit E09 in the mobile phone, as shown in FIG. 14. On incoming of a call or a message, the mobile phone reads out pre-selected or pre-set incoming melody data, out of the stored data, converts the data by a control circuit E05 and converts the so read-out data by an incoming sound outputting circuit E07 into signals by a loudspeaker E07 to cause sound radiation from a loudspeaker E08.
In this conventional technique, only the incoming melody, selected and set by a receiving party from plural incoming melodies, pre-stored in a storage unit of the mobile phone of the receiving party, is replayed, while it is not possible for the transmitting party to designate the incoming melody of the receiving party. For example, it is not possible for the transmitting party to impart the transmitting party's intention or the order of priority by the incoming melody of the mobile phone of the receiving party.
Thus, the receiving party is unable to discern the intention of the transmitting party or the order of priority of the contents of the telephone call, such that there may be occasions where the receiving party in the engrossed state accepts the call even though the order of priority of the telephone call is low, or where the receiving party rejects the call even though the order of priority of the telephone call is high. Moreover, since the incoming melodies are stored in advance in a storage unit of the mobile phone, and hence the memory capacity needs to be increased if it is attempted to store more incoming melodies, there are imposed limitations on the melody of the musical melodies of the incoming melodies that may be stored in the storage unit in the mobile phone with a limited storage capacity.
For coping with such problem, Patent Document 1 shows a method consisting in specifying the ringing pattern of the incoming sound of the receiving mobile phone from the transmitting side, appending specified melody pattern data to a call setting message, and in transmitting the resultant data. The incoming side analyzes the message, sent from the transmitting side, and extracts the melody pattern data to radiate the sound from the loudspeaker. With this method, the incoming melody of the receiving party can be specified from the transmitting party, and hence the intention of the transmitting party as well as the order of priority may be imparted to the receiving party. However, if more different incoming melodies are used by the transmitting party, it becomes necessary to increase the memory capacity in the mobile phone.
Moreover, since the incoming melody data is appended by the transmitting side mobile phone and sent to the incoming side mobile phone so that the appended incoming melody is replayed on the incoming side mobile phone, the incoming melody data needs to be sent from the transmitting side mobile phone over the network to the incoming side mobile phone, thus increasing the load imposed on the network.
In Patent Document 2, incoming announcing melodies are stored in advance in a database connected to a relay station or in a data file of an Internet server, in association with a registration melody, from one transmitting side mobile phone to another. The transmitting party first dials the telephone number of the counterpart party and transmits the registration melody of an incoming announcing melody, stored in the database or the Internet server, by appending the registration melody to the call setting message. The relay station extracts the call melody and the registration melody of the incoming announcing melody, from the received call setting message, and reads out melody pattern data for the incoming announcement, associated with the same transmission melody as the call melody, from the database or the Internet server, to generate a call setting message including the melody pattern data for incoming announcement, to transmit the so generated call setting message to the incoming side mobile phone. This allows coping with a case where there is no sufficient memory capacity to store the melody pattern data for the incoming announcement on the part of the transmitting side mobile phone.
In Patent Document 3, registration processing is carried out between the mobile phone and the registration server to store designation data, such as incoming melody data, associated with the telephone number of the mobile phone, at the time of calling, in a database server. On receipt of a call from a mobile phone, an exchanger acquires designation data, stored in the database server in association with the telephone number of the calling mobile phone, and transmits the so acquired designation data to the calling mobile phone, along with the call melody. The calling mobile phone replays and outputs the designation data, such as incoming melody data, sent with the call signal, thus allowing the transmitting party to designate the incoming melody for the incoming side mobile phone.
In the inventions disclosed in Patent Documents 2 and 3, the incoming melodies at the time of calling are stored not in the transmitting side mobile phone, but in the server, so that there is no necessity for providing a memory capacity for storage of the melody pattern data for incoming announcement, appended at the time of a call from a mobile phone. Moreover, the incoming melody data is transmitted from the server to the incoming side mobile phone and hence there is no necessity for sending the incoming melody data from the transmitting side mobile phone to the network server, thus relieving the load otherwise imposed on the network.
[Patent Document 1]
Japanese Patent Kokai Publication No. JP-A-11-355393
[Patent Document 2]
Japanese Patent Kokai Publication No. JP-P2002-64658A
[Patent Document 3]
Japanese Patent Kokai Publication No. JP-P2003-174511A